• In a recent documentary, Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich expressed ambitions to expand Israel into parts of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
• Smotrich also remarked that the expansion of Israel is a prevalent subject in public discourse in Israeli society.
In a recent documentary, Bezalel Smotrich says that the Zionist ambition of expanding to portions of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia is a topic of public discourse in Israel.
In this documentary, Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich elaborates on his aspiration to over take not only all of Occupied Palestine up to the Jordan River but also the Syrian capital of Damascus and regions extending into Iraq and Saudi Arabia. As the Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionism party, Smotrich made these assertions in the documentary titled, Israel: Extremists in Power, produced by Arte Reportage, a Franco-German news magazine.
When probed about his objectives, Smotrich stated:
“I want a Jewish state … It is a country run according to the values of the values of the Jewish people.”
Currently, Israel governs land stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, including Occupied Palestine in the West Bank, which have remained under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Since then, Israel has been constructing illegal Jewish settlements on appropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The interviewer subsequently questioned whether Smotrich believed the borders of the Jewish state should extend beyond the Jordan River. He replied:
“Absolutely, but slowly … Our great religious elders used to say that the future of Jerusalem was to extend as far as Damascus.”
The narrator of the documentary added:
“Bezalel Smotrich has a maximalist vision of the promised land. And it includes all Palestinian lands, but also territories in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. Even in Saudi Arabia. A radical vision admittedly, but one that is accepted in public debate in Israel.”
Since the onset of October 2023, numerous Israeli soldiers, media figures, and politicians have made it evident that they are fighting to seize the enclave to facilitate Jewish settlement. They assert that Gaza must be obliterated and the 2.3 million Palestinian residents forcibly expelled—whether to Egypt by land or to Europe by sea—to enable Jewish habitation.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in northern Gaza is reportedly underway, in accordance with the so-called “general’s plan.” Some soldiers explicitly communicate their additional ambition to annex Arab territories extending as far as Syria and Iraq, as indicated by patches displayed on their uniforms.
Many within Israeli society anticipate the illegal annexation of southern Lebanon and the establishment of Jewish settlements there. On September 25, the Movement for Settlement in Southern Lebanon released a map featuring “the new Hebrew names for the settlements of Southern Lebanon,” derived from the existing names of Lebanese towns and villages. Jewish Currents reports that within this movement’s ideology, “the Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon will begin with a war with Hezbollah—which they view not as a last resort barring a diplomatic solution, but as the only reasonable path forward.”
Political analyst James Dorsey highlights that this movement claims Biblical justification for the conquest of Lebanon, referencing the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 3, verse 25. In this passage, as Moses appeals to God for permission to enter the Promised Land, he implores, “Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan – that fine hill country and Lebanon.”
Additionally, an Israeli settler organisation is actively marketing new properties for sale in southern Lebanon, as well as Zionist Rabbi’s calling for Israel’s expansion.
